Merits and Flaws
Merits and Flaws allow you to further customise your character’s traits.
It is important to note, particularly for those who are familiar with the standard Storyteller systems, that we are NOT using the Sanctity of Merits rule here. This means that if you lose a merit through gameplay, you do NOT receive any merit points back to spend elsewhere. This reinforces the nature of the game, in that losses are permanent.
The combination of some Merits and Flaws may be restricted. The ST team reserves the right to veto any combination of Merits and Flaws either during character generation or at a later point if it becomes apparent that it abuses the system. If a player is forced to remove a Merit or Flaw for this reason after character generation then the ST team will discuss replacements as these are not lost through gameplay.
The full list of Merits can be found here.
The full list of Flaws can be found here.
Merits
Merits are advantages you can pick up for your character at character generation or be acquired through play.
Each merit has a point value, which is the number of build points that they cost at character generation. You may never have more than 7 points of merits and if you are to gain a merit that would take you above that threshold you will have to pick to lose one to bring you back down to or under 7 points. There may be exceptions to this decided by the ST Team.
There are two main types of merit: General Merits (split into the sub-categories of Physical, Mental, Social and Supernatural) and Clan-specific merits. General Merits are available to everyone (where appropriate), while Clan-specific merits are ONLY available if you are playing a vampire of the specified Clan.
Flaws
Flaws are disadvantages that you can pick for your character at character generation or be acquired through play. Flaws are often character defining and many should add to your and others experience in the game.
Each flaw has a point value, which is the number of build points that they may spend elsewhere on their character. You may not benefit from more than 7 points of flaws at any point and if you should have flaws that grant you more than 7 points those do not benefit you.
Please don’t take a flaw if you are not going to roleplay it and use it to enhance the experience of the game for you and others.
Inappropriate Flaws
We expect players to attempt to use common sense when selecting Merits and Flaws. However, we will clarify which circumstances in which Flaws cannot be acquired by a character.
Flaws that cannot be acquired are those that do not in some way impact a character. Below is a list of standards we will hold people to and examples of each being broken:
Flaws that are made irrelevant by Merits you have taken, such as buying back the Specialism lost by Stolen Potential with Versatile.
Flaws that are made irrelevant by our divergent setting. Such as having a flaw that causes your character to be terrified of Clan Tremere for example, since they don’t exist yet in the setting.
Flaws that duplicate your clan weakness, such as the Prey Exclusion flaw on a Ventrue character.
Flaws that are inappropriate for your type, for example a Revenant or Ghoul taking Stolen Potential. This is because they have not yet been embraced and the flaw specifically calls out the embrace as the reason for the loss.
Other Rules
Unless otherwise stated in the mechanics of a merit or flaw, you cannot purchase a specific merit or flaw more than once.